If your family members are destroying the OS, the best solution is to either run in a VM which is set to not persist changes (via VMWare or the free options), or to boot from a VHD file for your other members (keep a clean and activated copy that you can revert to).
There are many options to solve this issue (ex: the native VHD boot, VirtualPC, HyperV).
Telling Microsoft to remove activation is a knee-jerk reaction that helps no one.
You can even run Linux as the Host OS.
I write and sell software, and activation is absolutely critical and responsible for at least half my revenue.
That sounds like an heck of a lot of extra work just to deal with Microsoft's anti-piracy activation system. IMHO, your "answer" just reinforces the original author's point. Why should legitimate paying customers have to deal with all of these workaround and annoyances? Why should legitimate customers have to endure being treated like potential criminals? Especially when these activation systems aren't stopping the pirates!!!!!!!
Having to re-install the OS because of virus issues, etc. is NOT usual and shouldn't be punished by forcing the user to go through some stupid activation system.
Having to re-activate because of hardware upgrades (new motherboard, etc) is also not unusual. Again, I don't see why a PAYING customer should be be punished by forcing the user to go through some stupid activation system, when pirates don't have to deal with the activation system.
Just because the activation system hasn't negatively affected you doesn't mean it hasn't negatively affected many, many paying customers. Why should I get treated like shit for being a paying customer, when I could get a better user experience by pirating Windows?
There are many options to solve this issue (ex: the native VHD boot, VirtualPC, HyperV).
Telling Microsoft to remove activation is a knee-jerk reaction that helps no one.
You can even run Linux as the Host OS.
I write and sell software, and activation is absolutely critical and responsible for at least half my revenue.